


take my hand.

by thiefless



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Developing Relationship, Everybody Lives, F/M, Falling In Love, Fix-It, Nightmares, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24006202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiefless/pseuds/thiefless
Summary: The thing about having a Force Bond meant that they were impenetrable, unbreakable. Not even death could rip them apart.Or: Reylo moving forward in the aftermath.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	take my hand.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everybody's staying safe and doing okay. May the fourth be with you all!

The thing about having a Force Bond meant that they were impenetrable, unbreakable. Not even death could rip them apart.

* * *

Ben is weak and shaky, trembling in her grasp, but so beautifully, heart-wrenchingly _alive_. Her lips taste of him, and the air between them is composed of the both of them, intertwined.

– and Rey thinks: _together then._

* * *

She has to act as a mediator. 

Chewie has never forgiven the son for the murder of the father. 

Rey feels Finn's protectiveness, hears Poe's anger, tastes their collective confusion. The Force ripples between them, and Rey has no doubt that Ben knows it too.

So, she advocates fiercely on behalf of Ben, strongly favouring his reintroduction into society. They cannot turn back time, and his actions do not excuse the atrocities he has committed under the guise of Kylo Ren, back when he was a mere creature in a mask. 

It isn't the Jedi way to fight this issue – not the way she bypasses all moral and ethical considerations in the same manner she once bypassed the Falcon's compressor to the bewilderment of Han Solo. But she cannot stop. There is a drive, a hyperdrive, pressing down on her, and she cannot, will not rest until Ben is there beside her. As he should be. As he always will be. 

And it's cruel, she decides; so terribly, awfully cruel to delight in this euphoric happiness, all the while other people are still reeling in the wake of the First Order. Rey isn't deluded enough not to understand that much, and sometimes the guilt eats her alive, but then –

Oh, but _then_. 

Ben will smile at her, all crooked and boyish and so shyly handsome, that she loses her train of thought, and she doesn't care anymore.

(Maybe she really is Palpatine's granddaughter, after all.)

* * *

Finn never tells her. He doesn't have to. Rey can feel it, wherever she is and whoever she is with. Finn's love is a tethered cord, a delicately beautiful link – familiar and warm and _home_. It's not romantic, not exactly, but something more. Something better. 

At the very start, it was him. Finn drew her into this, and she made him stay. 

Loving Ben is not like loving Finn. There is nothing easy about it, not in the least because she has spent the better part of a year rallying against their bond. Even before Snoke bound them telepathically, they were already made.

Unified. Together.

* * *

They go back to the beginning, back to the place that started it all – Tatooine – to recuperate in a planet where no one will disturb them.

Ben has nightmares. Part of him has never felt at peace with the Force; always on edge, always angry. His position just that bit precarious, teasing the line between Light and Dark, waiting for a push or a pull in either direction. 

Rey can sympathise with him in a lot of things – but in this, she empathises. You see, she can... _understand_ the impulse. She, who stabbed him and saved him, knows both sides now. Kylo Ren and Ben Solo. The Dark and the Light.

(For she looks at Ben and is _known_. It is a frightening concept – to be so naked and honest in the company of your other; to have everything on display, to have nothing sacred. She doesn't even have to quiver under his scrutiny; even a quick, cursory glance is enough for him to garner every intimate detail from her, all her secrets treated as superficial. 

Rey fears. In turn, Ben fears her.)

* * *

The first time they make love is magical. Momentous. Tears slip down Ben’s cheeks and catch on her skin. She washes his face with kisses, and he sighs happily.

It’s like coming home.

* * *

They bury the weapons of the Jedi in the sand. Ben places his mother’s sabre over Luke’s, and intertwines their fingers.

An old woman notices them, and Rey’s fingers instinctively tighten around Ben’s.

“There’s been no one for so long,” the woman says. “Who are you?”

“I’m Ben Solo.”

“I’m Rey.”

The woman squints, looks at Rey. “Rey who?”

Rey stops; starts; thinks. In the horizon, Luke and Leia appear. The twin suns colour the background in an amber hue.

(Judging by the bittersweet refrain dancing in Ben’s dark eyes, he also sees the ghosts of his family.)

– and Rey thinks: _together then._

* * *

“Solo. Rey Solo.”


End file.
